


Saving Zephyr

by Blue_Daffodils



Series: Legacies [1]
Category: Jack Blank Adventures - Matt Myklusch
Genre: F/F, F/M, Rustov, Unofficial Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:54:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28717605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Daffodils/pseuds/Blue_Daffodils
Summary: "It's always been my experience that the world never stays 'saved' for very long" It's been 25 years since Stendeval uttered those words to Jack. Of course, he was right. There have been many 'end of the worlds' and supervillains who have made plenty of trouble for the heroes of the Imagine Nation. Through it all, life has continued and grown. Meet Dawn, the daughter of Stendeval. Despite being born to the most powerful superhero in the Imagine Nation, Dawn has no powers. What she does have is the heart of the hero, and the Imagine Nation is going to need it. Familiar threats start to form on the horizon. Whether they know it or not, Dawn and her friends are the only ones who are going to be able to stop it.
Relationships: Allegra/Jack Blank, Skerren/Victoria(oc)
Series: Legacies [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105238





	Saving Zephyr

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic. I'm really excited about it. Similar to Jack in the first book, I'm making my own continuation of the story. This series takes place years after the last book. All the main characters are married and have families, and those children are the main characters of this story.  
> Edit: The character known as Yrsa has been changed to Astrid

Dawn’s legs rest comfortably folded on top of the cool cement that surrounds her family’s rooftop garden. her hands lie on her knees in a perfect meditation position. The sun has just risen, painting the white building of Cognito in deep orange light and highlighting the orange tips of her dark blue hair. She takes a deep breath clearing her mind and trying to focus her energy for the day. _Today is going to be a good day_. She thinks. _I am going to pass my entrance exam. I am definitely not going to fail and embarrass myself in front of the whole Imagine Nation... again, like the past two years.._. _in a row_.

She sighs in frustration. Meditating is always hard for her, but it's almost impossible when she's nervous. No matter how hard she tries to push them down, her negative thoughts always rush back in a pattern as predictable as the tides. She kicks her legs out from under her and leans back on her hands, staring off into the skyline. into the fresh dawn of a new day. Apparently, her father started every day with meditation. She didn’t know how he did it. Then again, that’s her problem. She’s nothing like him.

“Dawn,” her mom says from behind her, interrupting her thoughts. Her mom stands there with a tray in her hand, filled with an assortment of breakfast foods. Her deep blue hair is cut into a pretty bob the frames her face. Her old enchantress garb hangs nicely on her frame, weaved with beautiful strips of blue, silver, and ivory. The sight of it made Dawn’s stomach turn. Her mother used to be an enchantress, a fae of great magical power and ability. She’d been one of the most powerful fae to ever take the position. That is until her older sister took over for her a couple of years ago. Magic, power, and influence seem to be a constant in her family. Except for her.

“Are you preparing for today’s nomination ceremony?” she asks, setting the tray down and sliding a fruit bowl towards her.

“I was attempting to meditate, but my nerves…” she lets the sentence hang, allowing the subtext to speak for itself.

Her mother laughs lightly, reaching forward to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Trust me, there’s nothing to worry about. Everything will work out in the end.”

“Is that a premonition?” she asks. Her mom smiles kindly.

“No, just a mother’s intuition.”

“Have you had any premonitions about me or my powers?” she doesn’t know why her hopes swell at the possibility of an answer when she’ll just say the same thing she always says. _Dawn, you have to have patience. Your powers will reveal themselves when the time is right_

“Dawn, you have to have patience. Your powers will reveal themselves when the time is right.” Like clockwork.

“I know,” she says, stabbing at a berry. “I’m just hoping today is the day I develop.” The same thing she always says.

They eat in companionable silence for the rest of the meal, of which Dawn spends more time shoveling food around on her plate than into her mouth, her nerves too tight for her to stomach anything. As the meal come to an end, her mom grabs all the food, placing it back on the tray and picking it up to leave. She pauses at the door, her eyes glowing a soft white, the tell-tale sign of a vision.

“Move the Harmonia pots to the right, and when Jace gets here, tell him to use the door next time.”

Around ten minutes later, there’s an audible thud as something slams into the side of their house and a young boy comes crashing onto the roof. He lands upside down in the chair Dawn’s mom had been occupying no more than a minute prior. He’s dressed in a leather jacket with an assortment of different pins for different causes. Silver eyes, the same color as the rest of his body, stare back up at her in shock and confusion. The silver of his skin is only matched by the silver studs that pierce his eyebrow, ears, and nose.

“Hey, Jace,” Dawn says, trying and failing to keep the laughter out of her voice. “Mom says to use the door next time.”

Jace looks up at her from his place on the floor, smiling back. He laughs before hitting a button on his watch. His rocket boots kick up, and he flies himself back upright.

“Sorry,” he says running his fingers through his hair and clicking off his holohelmet. “On the bright side, at least nothing broke.”

She rolled her eyes. “Only because my mom had a vision and warned me to move the pot.”

He snorts at that. “Next time your mom has a vision about one of my inventions malfunctioning and sending me crashing into a wall, tell her to let me know before I try out the said invention.”

“Her visions don’t work like that.” Or at least she didn’t think they worked like that. Her mom never actually explained how visions worked. “New rocket boots?” she asks.

“Yeah,” he holds up his foot, letting her get a better look at them. “I designed them myself.”

She crosses her arms. “You know they design actual functioning rocket boots that you can buy. I heard they come with the bonus of not crashing you into buildings.”

“Pssh,” he waves off her concern. “The ones I want need to be able to get as high as 1000 meters and the ones that they sell to children don’t get that high. Ergo,” he points down to his newly designed boots.

Dawn laughs. “Why’d you even bring those? My mom is going to teleport us to the nomination testing. You could’ve just walked here.”

He wrinkles his nose in distaste. “I hate portals, especially fae portals. Makes me feel sick.”

“Still,” she adds. “you could’ve gotten a ride with your dad and meet me at the testing center.” Jace’s dad, Jack Blank, was in charge of the nomination testing for Cognito. He had been ever since Dawn’s dad passed.

“Wow, is it so hard to believe that I wanted to spend extra face time with you?” Dawn blushes, tucking away an imaginary strand of hair.

“Anyway,” he reaches into his pocket, “I wouldn’t be able to give you this if I’d waited to meet you later with my dad.” He holds out a small silver bracelet.

Dawn feels her blush get worse. “What’s this? A good luck bracelet?”

“No,” he wrinkles his nose with disgust. “That’d be pretty useless. It’s a wrist computer. It can analyze data, deduce riddles, discover patterns. Things that might come in handy for the tests.”

Now, it’s Dawn’s turn to feel disgusted. “No,” she shoves the bracelet back at him. “I have to do this for myself and by myself. If- I mean when,” she corrects herself. “When I get in, I want it to be because of my own talents”

“You mean powers?”

She brushes off imaginary lint on her shirt. “Powers, talents, those words are practically interchangeable. The point is that I will have powers and I will use them to get into the School of Thought.”

Jace looks like he’s about to say something but before he can Dawn’s mom appears back in the doorway.

“Jace, good to see you in one piece,” she says, smiling. He gives her a mock salute.

“Are you ready to go?” she asks them. Her hands already glowing with blue energy.

Both children nod. With a wave of her hand, a blue circle of light begins to appear out of the air. It then grows a deeper color as intricate runes begin to sketch themselves into the circle, glowing brighter and brighter. Until the inside of the circle looks like a blurry image of their destination. Dawn’s mother walks through followed quickly behind by Dawn and Jace.

Traveling through the Fae dimension is kind of like swimming underwater. Everything is blurry, her ears feel like they’re filled with cotton, and her body feels cold and sluggish. As they exit the portal, Dawn is appreciative of her half-Fae heritage as Jace shakes his head and ears to get rid of the aftereffects.

“Jace!”

Dawn turns around to see Allegra standing there.

“Where’s your holohelmet?”

“It’s on.” He says defensively.

“No,” says Jack coming up behind Allegra, waving his hand. “Now, it’s on.” the helmet clicks on and covers his face. Jace reaches up to clip it off. “You have to remember to put your helmet on when you travel. It probably would’ve protected you from whatever weird effects you’re experiencing from dimensional warping.”

“To be fair,” says her mom. “He did have it on when he crashed into my terrace.”

“Mom!” shouts Dawn, embarrassed.

“Hey!” shouts Jace, exposed.

“And,” she continues ignoring their outburst. “The helmet probably would’ve broken, considering the odd effects of magic and technology on each other.”

“Thank you, Lumeria,” says Jack pointedly, “for being honest.”

Her mom laughs. “Are you preparing for today’s nominations?”

“Yes.” He pauses looking at Dawn. “Are you here to try out again?” he asks hesitantly.

Dawn sighed. She knew how close Jack had been with her father. It must make rejecting her School of Thought nomination every year hard. “Yes,” she replies. An uncomfortable silence follows that admission.

“Anyway,” says Jace, breaking the silence. “We’re going to go find Astrid.”

He grabs Dawn’s hand dragging her behind him as he rushes to leave.

“Tell her we said ‘hi’!” shouts Jack at their retreating forms.

They keep walking around, seeing a few other contestants and some random heroes running around.

“How are we going to find Astrid?” she says as they turn another empty corner. “She could be anywhere, and it’s not like we can text her.”

As if on cue, from behind one of the identical buildings a feminine voice with an English accent shouts out, “I’ll ax you!”

Both of them turn to look at each other, smiles appearing as they realize it’s their friend. They both take off towards the voice. When they turn the corner, they find a girl dressed in heavy furs. Thick wavy hair falls down her back and she has large brown almond-shaped eyes. In her hands, she holds a wicked-looking battle-ax and is waving it aggressively at a mysterii.

“Astrid,” says a boy with similar features in an admonishing tone. “Stop threatening the mysterii. They’re trying to help us, and if you take time to threaten them every time you don’t understand what they’re saying, which is all the time, you’re going to be late.”

Upon clearing the corner, the mysterii that had previously been squaring up with Astrid hisses retreating into a dark alley that popped up and vanished with it.

“Yeah, you better run.” She mutters at the spot it had been. “Hey guys,” she adds when she sees them. She throws her ax onto the holder on her back, going in to hug her friends.

“Hey, Javier,” says Dawn, waving at Astrid’s older brother.

“Dawn,” he says bowing at the waist with his fist in his palm. It was a greeting that he’d probably learned from Chi. Javier was a powerful empath and in his second year of training in the School of Thought. Currently, he was training heavily with Chi to master his and everyone else’s emotions.

“Og’s blood,” he says, eyes training on Dawn. “You are incredibly nervous today. It’s no wonder the mysterii took off like that.”

Jace frowns. “The mysterii take off like that from everybody. The mysterii don’t like anyone. It’s probably not anything personal.”

“No,” says Javier. “The mysterii don’t like you.” They all turn to stare at him. he holds up his hands defensively. “Sorry, empath. If it makes you feel any better, they don’t hate you, you just make them feel… uncomfortable. While mostly everyone else, makes them feel annoyed.”

“Why?” asks Jace.

He shrugs. “I’m an empath, not a telepath. I can’t tell you their thoughts, just their emotions.”

“Great,” says Astrid after a lengthy silence. “Now, you’ve made my friend uncomfortable.”

“I make her uncomfortable. We wouldn’t even be in this position if you hadn’t decided to pick a fight with one of them.” He shoots back.

“I am so glad I don’t have a sibling,” whispers Jace to Dawn.

“Hey!” shout both of the siblings.

Dawn didn’t necessarily agree or disagree. She had an older sister who is almost 100 years older than her and currently lived in the Fae realm. The sisters were close, but the distance meant they rarely argued like Javier and Yrsa seemed prone to do.

“If we don’t want to be late, we need to start going.” Interrupts Dawn. Anxious to be on time and not have to deal with any more inner-sibling squabbles.

“Can your mom portal Astrid back to Vargog after your done? She has her own testing today.” Dawn nods her head. “Also,” he grabs her shoulder. Suddenly, she feels all her stress get replaced by a strong wave of calm, a sense of peace rolling through her. “Relax. You’ll do fine whatever happens.” He turns around, making his way out of Cognito, leaving Astrid Jace and Dawn to make their way back to the testing center.

By the time they get to the center, the testing has begun.

“The second applicant is Issae Diaspro.” Says Jack from the center of the emptied square.

A girl with cholate skin and almond-shaped eyes steps up.

“Issae what exactly are your powers?”

She holds her hands away from her body, taking a deep breath as she vanished from sight. “That’s not all.” Says a disembodied voice. “I can make people forget me in this state if I want to. I’m not gonna demonstrate it now because, well…” she trails off. Dawn’s guessing that making everyone in the square forget her to demonstrate her powers would be pretty frustrating for all involved.

Jack gives a soft chuckle. “Ok,” he checks a few boxes on a clipboard before giving her a thumbs up. “You’re good to go into testing.”

Fog engulfs the girl, blocking her from the view of the crows. When the smoke clears, she’s gone.

“Did she use her powers or is the trial beginning?” ask Astrid.

“The trials beginning,” answers Jace.

Astrid frowns. “In Varagog, the trials involve an open ring of combat. It’s much more interesting.”

Jace rolls his eyes. “In Cognito, we try to keep our trials less public and more secretive. Hints the secreteers,” he nods towards the cloaked figures standing around and among the crowd. Despite the nomination test being for the young residents of Cognito, testing took place in-hero square. The secrets did their best to maintain the privacy of the borough and their testing.

“Well, when it’s time for my trials, I’ll make sure to give you guys a show.” She responds with a smirk

A few more minutes pass and Issae reappears. “I’m sorry Issae.” He tells her, but you didn’t pass.” Her face scrunches up like she’s about to cry then she vanishes from sight.

“The next applicant is Dawn.” Astrid gives her a pat on the back. Jace flashes her a thumbs up as she walks up to him.

Jack smiles, trying his best to make her feel at ease. “State why you wish to enter the school of thought.”

“My dad was Stendeval the Wise. I want to be a hero, a great one, just like he was.”

Jack looks at her with so much pity it hurts. “Dawn, please state what your power is.”

Dawn held her head up height. “None.” Her voice rings out clear across the pavilion.

“Do you have any skills you’d like to demonstrate?” he asks, trying to bolster up her resume.

“No,” she says.

Jack takes a deep breath. “Okay then. You shall now begin the admittance test for Cognito.”

Fog encircles her. Jack and the rest of the emptied square disappear as the fog engulfs them. Suddenly, she feels a hand on her back. It calmly guides her toward a building. She enters and the door shuts behind her. Dawn finds herself inside a strange and poorly lit room. She turns around to find a message cube on a small wooden desk. She picks it up. A hologram of Jack pops up. “You have ten minutes to find a way out of this room. Escape the room and pass. Fail to escape, and there’s always next year.” The hologram smiles encouragingly. Dawn was starting to feel like he made these especially for her. “The only restriction is you shouldn’t break or damage the message cube. Other than that, the only limitation is your creativity. Good luck!” the hologram clicks off.

She starts to walk forward to find a light switch and trips over something, slamming into the floor.

“Ow,” she says as she rubs her ankle. She was never going to get out of this room if she couldn’t even see.

She looks back up at the table. A metaphorical lightbulb switch on. She grabs the message cube, turning it on, letting the message start to play. Jack’s hologram lights up the room, giving her a better look at where she is. She immediately wishes she’d kept it off. The first thing she notices is that there are no windows and no doors. The second thing is that there’s clutter everywhere. There’s not a single place on the floor that isn’t overflowing with stuff. Most of it is random and useless. There’s a paddle ball without a ball attached to it, a strange-looking plant in the corner, a picture frame without a picture in it hung up on the wall, and a bunch of other odd items. The clutters seems pointless to mettle through for a key, so she decides to head back the way she entered.

She goes over to where the door that the cloaked woman had pushed her through should be; except, the door is no longer there. _It must be a magical door of some sort_ , she thinks.

“Hey, moon magic or whatever powers are hidden deep inside me. Now, would be a good time for you to emerge.” She opens her eyes and waves them in front of the door. nothing happens.

“Come on!” she shouts to no one but herself. “Reveal your powers!” She slams her hands on the door, and again nothing happens.

If she was an actual fae like her mom and sister, she could create a portal out of here by traveling to the fae realm. Or, she could look into the future and discover how to escape. If she had any trace of her father’s powers, she could just poof and teleport herself out. But she didn’t. She was just plain powerless Dawn. She took a deep breath, pushing back her tears. Focusing on what she can’t do, wasn’t going to get her outside of this room. She forced herself to focus on her surroundings, on what could help her. There was a book about escapism, but all the pages were blank. She tossed it aside. There was an empty picture frame. She tried straightening in the hopes that a secret passage would open, like a scooby-doo episode. That failed too.

“You have five minutes left.” The hologram Jack said. She looked at the cube in her hand. Looked at the room. Looked back at the cube. then had an idea, reflecting on the cube’s instructions at the beginning of her test. What if breaking the cube was exactly what she needed to do to escape the room? Jack Blank was famous for breaking out of the confines of his future and what the world saw of him. Obviously, he put a personal touch on his test, considering the message cube, which was a poor pun on a ‘jack in the box’. Breaking the cube must be the way out of here. She enthusiastically started slamming the cube into the side of the wall.

“Please don’t break me,” said the hologram image. “It’s against the rules.”

“Shut up!” she yells at the cube as she continues to slam the box into the wall. It starts to shatter into large, then smaller pieces. She frantically begins to look through the pieces of the shattered cube, looking for a key or instructions to get out of the room. Unfortunately, killing the cube also killed her light, making her task difficult. Her hand closes around a key feeling piece. She squints at it, trying to discern the shape.

Light pours into the room.

“Yes!” shouted dawn. Tears of joy spring into her eyes. “I did it. I found the key!”

The cloaked woman at the door holds her hand out for Dawn to join her. Dawn races forward, still high on her own victory. They walk through the fog back to the square where the test began. As the fog clears, Jack smiles down at Dawn sadly.

Dawn doesn’t let him get the chance to speak as her excitement gets to her. “I did it, didn’t I?! I passed?!”

“Dawn,” he begins.

“YES!” she jumps up, slamming a fist in the air. “I Knew if I worked hard enough and believed in myself strong enough, I would succeed.” She says wiping tears of joy away from her face. “I’m so happy.”

“Dawn,” he tries again.

“This one’s for you dad,” she says holding up one of the pieces from the broken message cube to the sky.

“Dawn!” shouts Jack.

“Yes?”

“You didn’t pass.”

The color drains from her face. “What?” “What do you mean?” her voice carries the pain of a thousand heartbreaks, a thousand failures. “But, I found the key.” She holds out the piece of shrapnel from the box.

“Dawn,” he starts.

“No!” she interrupts her despair turning into anger. “I did the stupid trial. I found the stupid key. I passed! The door opened and everything.” She shouts pointing to the entrance of the building she just tested in. Jack pauses in his speech, looking confused. Dawn can’t take it anymore. She throws the piece down, racing from the square and out into the streets of Cognito. Tears streaming down her face and hurt beating in her heart.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any supportive comments or ideas, please leave them in the comments.


End file.
